An 'Interesting' visit to the Bay of Islands

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After our amazing time in Orewa, Jean dropped us back into Auckland and the next day we got up very early and got onto our first bit of the 'Kiwi Experience'. This is the bus network me and Andy are taking throughout the whole of New Zealand. We jumped on and it was exactly how we expected it to be with everyone relaxed and chilled out. The coach took us all the way up to the top of the North Island to a beautiful place called the Bay of Islands. We were staying in the main town there called Paihia which is a nice small town made for tourists to spend lots of money on the coast there. We were staying at a hostel called the Mousetrap and it was very close to the bay and we had a beautiful view of the beach and especially the sunset.
Our first afternoon was rather amusing as we borrowed the hostels TERRIBLE bikes and very difficulty (with one gear each) made our way up to a very nice golf course. The course was right on top of the coastline and we had views of the ocean and it was beautifully sunny. That evening we had a nice meal right on the beach and then had a few drinks at a nice pub. Sadly that evening we were put in a dorm with a crazy Mexican guy traveling with a very boring Arabian, who by the way snored SO loudly and warned us before we went to bed - cheers mate!
Our next day in Paihia was Easter Sunday and we wanted to find a nice church, luckily the owners of our hostel invited us to their church which was kind of them. We got to have a nice small service with songs we actually knew and everyone there was so happy for us to be there. For the rest of the day we just relaxed in the sun by the beach and spent some time not rushing around - it was rather nice infact.

On Monday morning we got up very early and made our way to Opua where we would be spending the next few days. Over the next 4 days we were hiring a 20-foot yacht! Pretty exciting huh! The boat was a 20-foot Davidson called 'KEA', so was very nice, but pretty small for the two of us, we stayed positive though. The day started of well and we met Tom who would be teaching us for the next few days. He was a great English guy from Pourtsmouth who was working over in NZ teaching guys like me and Andy how to sail. We had a great day on the water and he went right from the start of sailing. We learnt how to put the sails up and how to use the helm, both of us picking it up quite quickly and we spent a good 7 hours on the water. The yacht even had a small outboard engine which me and Andy wanted to use all the time - we are quite lazy and I miss my boat back at home.
It was a tiring day and after dinner and a cramped game of cards on the boat we decided we needed an early night. We both woke up early as we didn't sleep 'that' well with the rocking boat, but we were both ready to get our second day of teaching of to a good start. We started our second day with practicing coming into moor and sailing into the wind. It was hard and we both found it challenging but it was good work. Tom also taught us how to put up a jib at the front of the boat (Andy called it a Jig-we found that quite funny) which is a small sail to pick up more wind, to help the boat go faster. He also taught us how to reef the main sail, which is making it smaller if there is too much wind. We also spent quite a while learning how to find our way around using charts and co-ordinates. We learnt lots and we both felt ready to take out the boat on our own the next day.

This is where it started going wrong. We woke up early on the morning of the 11th and got enough food to last us for the next two days. They checked the boat had everything we needed, and we set off at 9am. We were both excited to be going on this adventure and to do something completely new. After 20 minutes of trying to catch the tinniest bit of wind, we gave up and put on the motor. We waited and waited for the wind to pick up, but there was none to be seen. We were worried about this as we knew that we didn't have enough fuel to last us for the next two days.
Sadly the wind never came, and we had to keep the engine on for most of the day. At around 2pm we realised that the engine was making funny noises (not the good kind of funny noises!!) and we checked it out. It started to cut out, and we would have to spend ages trying to restart the engine...we were not happy. We found our way to a lovely secluded sandy bay where we anchored and tried to work on the engine while having lunch. We gave up after half an hour or so and thought that we would try and phone Terry who owned the company.
It took Andy a good amount of time to actually get hold of him, and after a long tedious conversation between the two of them we decided that we would make our way to a beach he could drive to and that he would come and fix our engine. Obviously this proved hard as there was no wind and engine - Im sure you're all laughing now! We eventually got to this beach and I anchored the yacht while Andy took the dingy to the shore to get Terry. We were happy to see him and he spent a good 30 minutes trying to fix the engine, which he eventually did.
He told us that by this time it was too late to go to a secluded bay overnight and that we would have to stay where we were. So he helped us more onto a private buoy, which meant we should have been more stable for the night. Once he left we decided to spend some time having fun-which is exactly what we did. We spent a good 45 minutes jumping/diving/bombing off the yacht into the sea. We both had a great time, and it was fantastic to be the only people around in middle of nowhere having fun. There was a huge clear rainbow in the distance and it was amazing seeing it so clearly and close. Andy took some brilliant photos of me jumping off the boat, as you can see.
After this the rain started, and we saw the dark clouds in the distance. The rain started getting harder and harder and we had to get inside the boat. This was when the waves started as well. I can tell you that after 5 minutes of the waves coming I started feeling ill. Sadly the waves did NOT stop, and on this small boat not being able to go outside due to the rain, we both felt rather bad. Lying down was the best thing for it, so we spent from 6 in the afternoon on our beds until the next day. It was a horrible experience and it was worse knowing that we couldn't get off the boat. It really was the worst nights sleep I have ever had!

The next day we both woke up a little worse for wear. The waves hadn't stopped all night long and both of us slept badly. Luckily by the morning, the waves were a lot smaller so we got ourselves together, left the buoy and set sail. Today was completely opposite of the day before. There was wind alright....in copious amounts! It all started well and the wind was just right for us and our yacht. But at 9.30am we turned on our VHF radio to listen to the weather forecast.
This was when it really got serious. It told us that we were heading into the eye of the storm and that we were going to be hitting winds of 25-35 knots all day. Better still....it was going to get worse as the day progressed. Now I know the Veira's always have to have some sort of commotion when on holiday, but its just getting ridiculous now!
We stayed positive and kept sailing, but we found out that we needed to sail into the wind. After 2 hours of sailing, the weather got even worse and the waves were around 2-3 meters high. Our boat remember was only a 20 footer, so she was not meant for weather like this. The boat started going out of control and we couldn't keep her in a straight line. We realised that the wind was pushing us sideways into rocks, and that we weren't going anywhere, so we put on the motor. I had to go and take down the main sail though, and this proved very difficult in the conditions. The rain had started and the boat was rocking in all directions. You had to hold on at every moment or either of us could have fallen over board.
We both realised at this point that we were in big trouble, and we both started getting scared - this was not our plan. We were both hanging on for dear life and I eventually decided to call Terry. He was a classic Kiwi and told us to chill and to "reef the main sail...then you'll be sweet mate!"........NO TERRY I SHALL NOT BE SWEET OR CALM, IM ABOUT TO DIE HERE! We tried it anyway as we had nothing to loose at this point, but again we were not going anywhere and by this point we were both wetting ourselves (not actually, but it was close).
I was not happy and called up Terry again telling him how scared we both were, and he eventually agreed to come and get us, this pleased me no end. But we still had to wait 30 minutes. This was the longest 30 minutes of my life...I would have preferred to resit my Alevel Physics paper again over that any day - and that is saying something! We still had no control over the boat, and we were both praying very hard. We just didn't know what to do and we were both so scared. Before this point I have never actually been scared for my life, it all changed then. I have seriously never been so scared!
After 40 minutes Terry came in his yacht, and the sight of him nearly brought tears to my eyes. He came with two of his friends and they sailed over to us and dropped Doug of with us. Doug sailed with us back to the mooring. He was a great guy, and calmed us both down, we both felt safer now with someone that knew what he was doing. He told us that he had been sailing for over 30 years in terrible weather, and that on that day he was finding it really hard to control the boat.....isn't that saying something?
We finally got to dry land at around 3pm and it was the best feeling I can tell you. It didn't kick in till later on that evening what had actually happened to us....or what COULD have happened to us. It was a terribly scary experience but one that we needed to experience. We can both now say that we had really experienced yachting! Getting into a comfy/warm/non-rocky bed that night was truly amazing. I didn't tell Mum, Dad or Amy straight away as I needed to have time to get over it myself as Im sure all 3 of them would have been wetting themselves if they knew what was happening during that day.

Our final day in the Bay of Islands was spent going up to the top point of New Zealand called Cape Reinga. We had an early 7.15am start which was fun after the day before, but we were just happy to be on dry land. We dropped into a national park and saw some of the Maori 'Kauri' trees which are the 2nd biggest trees in the world, they seemed quite big to me. To get to Cape Reinga we had to drive along the famous 90-mile beach. It is a beach, but it is also a road, so you don't see many sun bathers there. You would expect a 90-mile beach to be near 90 miles, but this one was only 64 miles long - 26 miles off......thats not even close!
We saw a good amount of the beach, and we even saw a car buried in the sand which had crashed a few days before. We then dropped into the highlight of the day - Sand dunning! This is another stupid Kiwi extreme sport where you get a small board (like a boogie board) and you go flat on it down massive sand dunes. Our bus drives took us to the biggest one there was and it took us 15 minutes just to walk up to the top. It was great fun, just really painful as most people come off the board and crash - I did this in great style getting a mouth full of sand, yum.
To finish the day we drove to the tip of the island to the lighthouse at Cape Reinga. We got a 360 degree view of the ocean and we faced toward all the different continents. It was quite windy at this point and we saw a few people getting blown over, that made my day. We got some classic New Zealand fish and chips on the way home, and we even got home in time to watch the rugby. Great day out, just tiring and sand in ever crevice of the body!

Bay of Islands really was amazing and we experienced so many different feelings. I will definitely remember it for different reasons and I don't want the bad things to stop us from remembering the great fun we had there.

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Photos

Best picture ever!
Me diving...brilliant

Me and Kea
Me standing proudly on our vessel!

Hostel View
Thats the beach...that is what we woke up to

View from Golf course
If you slice it..thats where it goes!

Reading
Grabbing a quick read in my cabbin

My dive
Should have kept my legs closer!

Jump
Good fun!

Titanic
Di caprio eat your heart out

Sunrise
Beautiful sunrise on the terrible day!

The bay of Islands
One of the beautiful bays in one of the beautiful islands

Long way from home
Not that far is it?

Burried car
Hope they arnt still in that...ouch

Cape Reinga
Choppy day at sea